


i feel god in this chili's tonight

by soperiso



Category: Fantastic Four, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, M/M, Spideychelle, Underage Drinking, and you just get overwhelmed by your love for them?, teenagers being dumb, this is that, you know that feeling when you're with your friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24880810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soperiso/pseuds/soperiso
Summary: They’re puzzle pieces, all slotting haphazardly together. They don’t match, but they don’t want to match. They have edges sticking out and bits that don’t quite line up. They don’t even have a cohesive color scheme. It’s okay, though. It’s more than okay.It’s more than Peter could’ve ever hoped for.---Or, the gang have a midnight dance party in the parking lot of a Chili's.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Peter Parker, Harley Keener/Johnny Storm, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Johnny Storm, Wanda Maximoff & Peter Parker, hints of
Comments: 16
Kudos: 88





	i feel god in this chili's tonight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [peterstank](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peterstank/gifts), [floweryfran](https://archiveofourown.org/users/floweryfran/gifts).
  * Inspired by [country boy, i love you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24414130) by [floweryfran](https://archiveofourown.org/users/floweryfran/pseuds/floweryfran), [peterstank](https://archiveofourown.org/users/peterstank/pseuds/peterstank). 



> this is based on how i feel about my own best friends, who i really hope never find this.

The door dings as Peter opens it. “I can’t believe you picked Chili’s, of all places. Red Robin, I could understand. But Chili’s? The literal Walmart of burger joints? I thought you had good taste, Emmie.”

MJ rolls her eyes, leading them into the line to order. “Chili’s is a God tier restaurant, I don’t know what your beef with it is.”

“It’s simply bad, and I have standards for what I put into my body. It’s a temple, you know.” Peter says, his eyebrows raised.

Out of the corner of his eye, Peter sees Johnny nod in agreement. He knows what’s up.

Wanda narrows her eyes. “You ate two fulls bags of literal gasoline chips last week,” she says, tilting her head slightly.

Peter is quick to defend himself. “Takis are different.”

“They’re really not,” says Ned, the traitor. Peter trusted him. 

“Hey, dumbasses, we’re up,” Harley says, gesturing to the counter where a man is waiting to take their orders.

“We’ll finish this later,” says MJ, stepping up to the counter.

“Can we not?” Peter pleads because he would really rather not get into another restaurant war with her.

MJ ignores him. “I’ll have a queso burger,” she says.

“But MJ, you’re lactose intolerant.” Ned reminds her.

MJ looks at him, deadpan. “I’m here for a good time, not a long time, Ned.”

“Okay, edgelord,” Peter mutters teasingly.

MJ hip checks him. “Call me an edgelord one more time, I swear to God I’ll–”

“Guys! We’re still up!” Harley says, laughter in his tone. 

“Take your time,” says the worker, who really doesn’t look all too annoyed at their shenanigans.

They each take their turn ordering. It’s mostly burgers, but a few people (Johnny) make it a bit more difficult.

“Do you have anything vegan?” he asks.

The worker looks a little bit confused, in the  _ ‘why on Earth did a vegan come to Chili’s’  _ kind of way. “Uhh, we have a black bean and veggie fajita. That’s about it, aside from a salad.”

“The fajita’s great, thanks,” Johnny says, smiling at him.

Wanda eyes the menu, then: “Have you guys ever had a margarita?”

The question is met with a chorus of noes and shaken heads. 

“Wanna try one?” she asks, a mischievous glint in her eye.

This time, the question is met with a chorus of ‘Hell yeah’s and nods.

The worker looks at them skeptically. Peter knows he has a babyface, but  _ hey.  _ “The margaritas are alcoholic. I’ll need to see an ID from each of you.”

“No, you won’t,” Wanda says, and if Peter sees a bit of red surrounding the man’s head, he doesn’t mention it.

“Six margaritas, I’ll add it to the order. To go or to stay?”

Johnny lightly high fives her behind her back. “To go,” he says. “My treat, guys.”

“Thanks, man!” says Peter, because he will never in his life turn down free food.

Everyone else responds similarly. 

Johnny pays and they move aside to wait for their food. It’s not long before a woman calls out “Johnny?”

“Oop, that’s us,” Johnny says, taking the to-go bag from her.

Harley leads them out into the parking lot. The sun has set, but the air is still warm.

“Where are we going?” Ned asks.

Harley looks around, grumpy-cat-frowning. “Let’s just stay here.” 

“Here, as in the middle of the parking lot?” MJ says, raising an eyebrow.

Harley shrugs.

MJ sighs. “Alright.”

They sit in a rough circle, right on the asphalt. A car could come at any minute, but it’s late and who goes to Chili’s at this hour—or ever—anyway? They pass around the food and dig in.

“I will forever be a slut for fajitas,” Johnny says around a mouthful of his franken-burrito.

“Lemme try some,” Harley says, snagging it out of Johnny’s hands and taking a big bite. He hums appreciatively before handing it back to Johnny.

Johnny takes it with wide eyes and a slight gape to his mouth. “That’s it, the wedding is off,” he declares.

“Aw, man,” Harley pouts, “What if I give you some of my fries?” He picks up the aforementioned food and shakes it a bit under Johnny’s nose.

“Hmm,” Johnny says, making a show of contemplating whether or not to accept the peace offering, “Wedding’s back on,” he decides, taking a handful of fries and putting them into his fajita.

Harley cringes but says nothing.

“Okay, time to try the margarita,” MJ says as she lifts the cup to her lips. Everyone watches as she takes a sip, waiting for her reaction. Her eyes widen. “Yum.”

Her approval is enough for the rest of them. Peter takes a generous sip of his own. He agrees with MJ’s verdict: this drink is very ‘yum’.

They drink and giggle, enjoying the tart yet sweet flavor and each other’s company.

A sudden crescendo of music gathers their attention. The source of the music is a car that pulls into the parking lot. Nobody gets out of it and the music continues playing.

“Who the hell plays music that loud in their car?” Wanda complains, scowling. She glares at the car for a second before continuing to enjoy her meal.

Ned tilts his head toward the car. “Wait, wait. Do you hear what they’re playing?”

Peter gasps. “Oh, my God. It’s  _ Tongue Tied _ .”

Wanda furrows her brow. “Okay? So?”

Peter makes a mental note to introduce her to more music; he often forgets that she didn’t really have access to that kind of stuff on the HYDRA base.

“It’s only, like, the teenage anthem,” Johnny says.

Harley makes an affronted hum. “ _ Party in the USA  _ is the teenage anthem,” he says.

Ned shakes his head slightly. “Respectfully, you’re wrong.” 

Maybe it’s the alcohol—or maybe it’s just Johnny being Johnny—that makes Johnny put down his margarita and start dancing around them like a Craigslist version of the ‘duck-duck-goose’ game. He’s good, Peter will admit it, but he still looks just a little bit crazy.

“C’mon, Wan, dance with me!” Johnny says, grinning. He extends a hand to Wanda, who looks unsure.

“I’m not a dancer,” she says. 

“You don’t have to be.”

Wanda still looks unsure, so they start shouting  _ Go, go, go, go!  _ like in that old video with Hip Hop Harry.

“For the love of–fine,” Wanda says. She smiles a bit, taking his hand and letting him pull her up and into his impromptu dance party. Laughing, she mimics Johnny’s dancing.

“Who’s next?” Harley says.

MJ laughs. “TikTok thot,” she says, shaking her head fondly.

“I don’t like the fact that you’re right. However! You’re also a TikTok thot since you understood the reference,” Harley says with a cheshire grin. He pushes himself off the ground and joins Johnny and Wanda, who embrace him excitedly.

Wanda grabs Ned’s arm and makes him join, too.

“Why not?” MJ says, lacing her fingers with Peter’s and bringing him into a clumsy version of the jitterbug.

Peter laughs, letting MJ lead him in the dance. “How do you know how to do this?”

“Went through a dance phase when I was younger.”

Peter smiles, leaning forward for a quick kiss. MJ smiles against his mouth, and Peter loses himself in the moment.

They’re all together, and there’s no reason to long for anything else. In this moment, this slice of the infinite and impossibly endless circle of time, they’re all they need. Peter could sing their praises from the rooftops and never run out of things to say. These people… they’re  _ his  _ people. Sure, they’ve got their rough edges, but Peter can’t think of a single person who doesn’t. 

They glow yellow in the light coming from the lamp posts surrounding the parking lot. They’ve become laughter and movement: ceaseless energy and joy. They dance around each other, a multi-wick candle next to an open window, a breeze coming in and causing them to swirl around one another. Peter’s afraid that, if he gets too close, he’ll get burnt. He also thinks that that might not be so bad. 

Peter remembers when it used to be just him. Then, it was him and Ned. Later on, it was him, Ned, and MJ. Now, it’s him, Ned, MJ, Wanda, Harley, and Johnny. Peter thinks that’s pretty neat, to say the least.

When he was little, Peter wanted to be friends with a kid in his neighborhood. Ben told him that friends were like flowers and Peter repeated this to the kid, who replied with, “If friends are like flowers, then my basket’s full.”

Little kid Peter was heartbroken. 

Teen Peter? Well, teen Peter thinks he dodged a bullet with that one. 

If friends are like flowers, then he would sooner build a garden than limit himself to only a basket. 

He is brought back into the moment when he and MJ bump into Johnny and Harley, who are doing a surprisingly good tango.

“Sorry,” they all say at the same time. Then, they laugh, both for no reason and for every reason.

Peter looks back at MJ and she grins, her teeth becoming pearls in the light. She laughs again, her head thrown back and her shoulders heaving with every breath. Peter can’t stop himself from threading his fingers through her hair and kissing her for all he’s worth. She kisses him back just as fervently.

He’s so immersed in  _ her _ that he hardly notices everyone else oohing at them. Not deterred in the slightest, he simply flips them the bird and carries on. MJ doesn’t seem to mind.

She breaks away from him, and they take a moment to simply be close, breathing each other’s air and basking in each other’s body heat. 

He loves her so, so much. He loves all of them. If his love was an ocean, it would be like a tsunami coming up and crashing over everything else. 

Peter sometimes wonders why they chose to be his friend, and why they continue to choose to spend time with him. He’s got issues aplenty. He has so many skeletons in his closet that he just might put Zurcher’s out of business in October. Sometimes, he wonders if there are more things wrong with him than there are right. 

They know this, though. They know this and they love him anyway. Peter still can’t wrap his mind around that. 

There’s no need to censor himself around them, to watch everything he says and does. He can be free with them. He hopes that they feel like they can be free with him. He can say and do as he pleases because he knows that they love him for  _ him _ , not the 'him' he has to be to impress people.

Peter remembers when they all watched  _ The Perks of Being a Wallflower _ together; there wasn’t a single dry eye at the end of the movie and they all went home a little bit more grateful to have each other. He specifically remembers one quote that stood out to him: ‘We accept the love we think we deserve.’  _ Well, Mr. Anderson, _ he thinks,  _ I’ve got some news for you. _ He doesn’t deserve these people. And yet, he accepts their love. He accepts it because he needs it. Without them, he’d… God, he doesn’t even know. He’s glad he doesn’t have to know.

Out of breath, Johnny lays down on the slowly cooling ground. The rest of them join him, laying in a circle with all of their heads facing the center and their feet pointing outwards.

For hours, they simply  _ are.  _ They talk about anything and everything. They casually touch each other in the way that only best friends do; without thought nor caution, a hand on a shoulder and a tug on an ear. A leg stretched out over someone’s lap and a fond hand running through hair.

They’re puzzle pieces, all slotting haphazardly together. They don’t match, but they don’t  _ want  _ to match. They have edges sticking out and bits that don’t quite line up. They don’t even have a cohesive color scheme. It’s okay, though. It’s more than okay. 

It’s more than Peter could’ve ever hoped for. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! feel free to leave a kudos and a comment!
> 
> come hang out with me on [tumblr!](https://soperiso.tumblr.com)


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